Eugene’s first mission for me was as follows: Get on the Eurostar to Paris. Go to Delorme. Buy plain black barrettes. Bring them back to London.

He conveyed this mission with a particular humility that’s unique to Eugene.

He knew what it sounded like, sending someone to Paris to go shopping for hairclips. He’d tried hard to find the particular design the brief called for – completely black and flat, nothing ornate or unusual; deceptively simple. But they were nowhere to be found in London. So, to Paris it was!

I got off the Eurostar at Gare du Nord smelling heavily of cigarettes having booked a seat in the smoking carriage. When I stepped out of the arrivals gate, there was a chauffeur holding a board with my name written on it! Obviously I had been told that was the plan, but actually meeting this man dressed in a black suit and tie who then walked me to his brand new Mercedes, and drove me through Paris to Delorme in Le passage de l’Industrie. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. It was like a scene from a film.

I hadn’t been to Paris since I was very young. I had no memory of those visits, apart from a vague recollection of going up the Eiffel Tower.

I stepped out of the car and in through the glass doors of Delorme. There were very many plain black barrettes, I found the specified shape and style, bought them all and made my way back to London.